Sinn Féin has confirmed that the content of the newspaper article of 5 August by the Sinn Féin leader regarding Oireachtas participation by Northern MPs was exaggerated. I will write to the other party leaders shortly with proposals on this matter and seek their views on these proposals. The proposals, which relate to both Houses, will be faithful to the recommendations of the all-party committee report. This House will ultimately decide for itself how it wishes to proceed. There is no question of granting Northern Ireland MPs any rights and privileges in this House.

The freedom, however, of IRA ‘On the Runs’ to come home will not be contingent on those exiled at gunpoint by the IRA also being allowed to return to Northern Ireland. A Downing Street spokesman said the two issues were not linked, which means hundreds of people will continue to live in exile until the IRA unilaterally lifts death threats against them.

However, the Tories and the LibDems are opposed to the OTR proposals as they stand, which means getting legislation through the Lords might be difficult for Blair if there is no compromise.

All this is likely to require the Government to row back a bit from what it proposed in the Joint Declaration.

Alliance will not be happy about Jonathan Powell de-linking the issues of IRA exiles being free to return home and the return of IRA fugitives. After all, the British and Irish Governments agreed in the Declaration that the practice of exiling must come to an end and the exiled must feel free to return in safety.

The issue is not just about the IRA (and others, of course) quitting the practice of throwing people out of the country under threat of death, but allowing those already exiled to live here again without interference. For some, it will prove impossible.

However, on OTRs, Alliance has proposed some suggestions for compromise, such as OTRs having to appear in court. No-one seriously expects suspected terrorists to actually serve a sentence these days in NI.

One curious aside in yesterday’s Dail debate was the slight insight the Taoiseach gave into how the talks process works. He tells us that the “Minister for Foreign Affairs, myself and officials on the ground always try to balance whatever we do because it is the best way to make progress”.

That ‘balance’ is what tends to get upset when the two governments spend all their time fixated on dealing with the demands of those least willing to compromise. It has led to the ‘Me too’ politics of Northern Ireland. Parity of begging bowl, if you like, and when ‘themmuns’ are getting all the attention, the results can be disastrous.

Unfortunately, democratic parties like the SDLP and Alliance can’t resort to shooting the police or blowing up Canary Wharf when they are not getting parity of attention. So when Liz McManus said the SDLP felt left out of the talks (Durkan threw a bit of a wobbly at Leeds Castle), Bertie was almost blase about immediately contradicting his statement on ‘balance’ made less than 10 minutes beforehand:

They do [feel left out] but I do not accept that. If we talk to Sinn Féin to use its influence to get the IRA to decommission its guns, there is not much point in talking to the SDLP about it. If the DUP has a particular problem, then we talk to the DUP about it. We could not move on in many of these meetings, we had to deal with issues such as decommissioning and criminality, so there was more time spent talking to some of the other parties. That is where the pressure points existed in those talks.

While it may be stating the obvious, this is the lesson the loyalist paramilitaries have learned well – create problems, gain concessions. In essence, those who create barriers to progress benefit the most, mandate or not.

This approach encourages problem-making and was perfectly exemplified by Tony Blair when he told the SDLP when it was the biggest nationalist party that their problem was that they didn’t have any guns…

This ” Red Hand Commando ” appears to be an offshoot of the Manson Family, rather than any sort of legitimate group.

Cannot criticize Ahern for meeting with ” anyone “, but for Gods sake this stretches the definition of who civilized men can meet with.

Jimmy Sands

I cannot see any useful purpose to such a meeting which can only have had the effect of pandering to their vanity.

aquifer

So in our Ireland of equals all we get is parity of terror, though Paisley condemning paramilitaries is useful.

What is a poor non paramilitary to do?

Organise a tax strike until the states adequately assert their monopoly of force?

Brian Boru

I think this is reasonable by Bertie because it shows he is not being hypocritcal about talking to terrorists i.e. he will talk to them regardless of their political-ideology, unlike the DUP who talk to Loyalists on the parades forum but wont talk to the PIRA or SF.

T.Ruth

There should be no place for criminals.thugs and murderers,especially those who show no remorse or regret,in talks with the government, in the respective police services or in the Executive level of government north or south.

D’Oracle

Dont worry, Bertie knows what hes doing..aah..well, at least I hope he does.

Brian Boru

“There should be no place for criminals.thugs and murderers,especially those who show no remorse or regret,in talks with the government, in the respective police services or in the Executive level of government north or south.”

What about former terrorists/criminals?

T.Ruth

Brian Boru

Equality legislation may well permit such inclusion on the basis that the time has been served for the crime committed.In the case of terrorist crime it is my view that such people should not be permitted to be Ministers in the Assembly Executive or be permitted to join the PSNI in any capacity.People who had equal access to a democratic Parliament at Westminster and the Dail and who resorted to murder,bombing,and criminality in order to promote their political view have disqualified themselvesfrom such involvement. If they accepted that their campaign of teror lacked legitimacy and justification and showed a degree of remorse for the pain they have caused then perhaps a different climate can be created in which those who were on the receiving end of terror might develop a more forgiving and inclusive view.